Fog hovers over the moss-covered cypress trees that surround Lake Pickett, isolating it from the rest of East Orlando. An eight racing shell glides atop the water.

Claire Frenkel's raspy and upbeat voice bellows from the boat and echoes across the lake.

"Come on," she yells as her teammates pick up their pace, sweeping their oars in rapid unison. "Come on!"

This is Frenkel's comfort zone, her sanctuary. She loves being a coxswain on the UCF women's rowing team – the commander and vocal leader of a boat.

"I think I'm a really strong leader in general and being able to lead eight people into doing the same thing at one time has been a natural thing for me," Frenkel said. She smiled and added, "That and I just love to talk, so it's easy for me to have a microphone for three hours and keep the team motivated."

But Frenkel, who will earn her bachelor's degree in psychology from UCF Saturday, nearly had one of her greatest passions taken away as a freshman.

Frenkel suffered complications from an aggressive form of cancer she battled when she was 4 years old. It seemed the lingering health problems would end her rowing career. But Frenkel said family, friends and coaches helped her cope and become the UCF rowing team's unquestioned emotional leader.

Frenkel should have been celebrating her fourth birthday. Instead, she was beginning chemotherapy.

There were six more chemotherapy treatments, 12 rounds of radiation and multiple surgeries before she entered remission at age 5.

Frenkel suffered intense fevers that led to seizures when she was 2. The next year, her tonsils started to swell. The problem persisted for months until one morning Frenkel woke up and could not speak.

"I sounded like a bullfrog," Frenkel recalled. "I couldn't even form words."

She was rushed to the hospital. Doctors preformed a biopsy and discovered she had tonsil cancer.

The treatments were invasive and uncomfortable.

"I don't remember a lot of it," Frenkel said. "I remember being different and knowing that I wasn't well. I remember being scared."

To pass the time during treatments, Frenkel watched her favorite movie --"The Lion King"-- at least once a day. Years later, Frenkel still watches "The Lion King" regularly and celebrated her 22nd birthday last month by watching the musical version of the film in Orlando.

"We talked to her about the circle of life," Frankel's mother, Maureen McArdle, said. "You had conversations about those type of concepts. Any time something would happen, we'd bring it back to that movie. The circle of life."

***

It is January, 2009.

Frenkel wakes up in an emergency room, disoriented.

The last thing she remembers is working out on the stationary ergometer at the UCF Athletics Rowing Facility at Lake Pickett.

Then, darkness. Frenkel had passed out.

Frenkel, Florida Hospital for Children's first pediatric cancer patient, was in remission for more than a decade. Doctors said she would have to avoid strenuous physical activity for the rest of her life, but she thought she'd proven them wrong.

She practiced gymnastics for six years, danced when she was 8 and joined Orlando Boone High's crew squad as a freshman.

The side effects from the cancer appeared to be limited, although she sustained nerve damage in her feet and had bone deterioration in her jaw because of the radiation.

Falling in love with the team aspect of rowing, Frenkel decided to walk-on to the UCF squad as a freshman. During her first few months, Frenkel worked hard and added 30 pounds to her frame as she become stronger.

But the physical demand of college athletics was taking its toll on Frenkel's delicate circulatory system. The blood transfusions she endured as a child made it difficult for her blood cells to absorb normal amounts of oxygen.

Frenkel fainted again days later, after discussing the merits of donating blood during a speech class.

She said her body was shutting down.

"My body knew it wasn't ready for that, but my head was like, 'go, go, go,'" Frenkel said. "That's always been my biggest problem, I push myself way more than I should."

After she collapsed at UCF, Frenkel's doctor told her she must quit rowing.

"My parents were there and I just started hysterically crying," Frenkel said. "I was devastated."

After being released from the hospital, Frenkel told UCF rowing coach Becky Cramer she had to leave the team.

"She has the biggest heart of anyone on this team," Cramer said. "Her contribution to team was evident already in freshman year. I knew that we needed to keep her on the team. We needed to find a way to do what it took to keep her on the team."